multiple album for a track

[BJW]

As a one time radio DJ and collector I have spent countless hours, much like those of u reading this, listening to CD after CD, and I am often shocked to find a song on one CD release sounds clearly audibly different from the same song on another release.

This presents a problem when building a station library, what gets aired? What gets deleted? Some stations software has a function known as rotations that basically assign a letter appendix to the numerical listing of the track, so if u had 3 versions of a song, track 5487 it would be 5487a, 5487b, 5487c ...this is good bc when the schedule is automated, 5487 only gets scheduled once, but each time it's called up it remembers what letter was played last and it then plays the next one.

So anyway in my own collecting I try to identify materially different versions and then decide if any are worth keeping. To me, even tho the song may be a dupe, some are worth keeping and knowing the exact source cd is worth maintaining.

However, a lot of times a song may be exact duped by differing CDs or maybe u have only one version u want used or played, but u want to save space etc... I would love to be able to identify exact matches automatically (via audio fingerprinting) or manually with the intent that if this song is called up, this is the preferred version to play, and or get a song listed as part of say, a soundtrack, if it was deleted as a dupe from that soundtrack bc it exists on a traditional album elsewhere.

A system like this could work either via tags, or as user config'ing LMS if it allowed such functions. I'd like to get rotations and other radio station style scheduling into LMS. It actually has most of what it needs to do it!

[RobbH]

Four months after I mentioned that LMS 8+ now supports cue files that point to multiple audio source files, I have finally done a test with encouraging results. IF your OS and filesystem both support symlinks, it is now possible to have tracks in a box set appear in your library in two places: as part of the box set, and as part of the albums on which they were originally released.

The process is straightforward, but not very simple, as several steps are involved. Assuming the box set is contained in a single folder:

1. create a new folder for an original album,

2. in the new folder, create symlinks to the files that belong in that album.

3. still in the new folder, create a cue file pointing to the symlinks as tracks. Add appropriate metadata to the cue file.

4. (optional) add album art and supporting documentation for the original album in the new folder.

5. rescan

You now should be able access the tracks either way: as part of the box set or the original album, with appropriate art in each case. This works mostly the same whether you use the library or the music folder. However, there are two glitches. The first should be familiar to anyone using cue files: in the music folder, the symlinks are listed but cannot be played, but the cue file functions as a subdirectory. The cue file can be opened and individual tracks selected.

The other glitch appears when using the library: there is now an additional entry for the box set, which only lists the tracks from the original album. It also displays the thumbnail for the original album, so it should be easy to avoid. The correct entry for the box set should contain all tracks, including the ones in the original album.

Still a tedious process, but the end result is much more satisfactory than earlier attempts.

[d6jg]

Four months after I mentioned that LMS 8+ now supports cue files that point to multiple audio source files, I have finally done a test with encouraging results. IF your OS and filesystem both support symlinks, it is now possible to have tracks in a box set appear in your library in two places: as part of the box set, and as part of the albums on which they were originally released.

The process is straightforward, but not very simple, as several steps are involved. Assuming the box set is contained in a single folder:

1. create a new folder for an original album,

2. in the new folder, create symlinks to the files that belong in that album.

3. still in the new folder, create a cue file pointing to the symlinks as tracks. Add appropriate metadata to the cue file.

4. (optional) add album art and supporting documentation for the original album in the new folder.

5. rescan

You now should be able access the tracks either way: as part of the box set or the original album, with appropriate art in each case. This works mostly the same whether you use the library or the music folder. However, there are two glitches. The first should be familiar to anyone using cue files: in the music folder, the symlinks are listed but cannot be played, but the cue file functions as a subdirectory. The cue file can be opened and individual tracks selected.

The other glitch appears when using the library: there is now an additional entry for the box set, which only lists the tracks from the original album. It also displays the thumbnail for the original album, so it should be easy to avoid. The correct entry for the box set should contain all tracks, including the ones in the original album.

Still a tedious process, but the end result is much more satisfactory than earlier attempts.

Why not just have 2 copies of the files tagged as necessary? Storage is hardly an issue these days.

[RobbH]

Why not just have 2 copies of the files tagged as necessary? Storage is hardly an issue these days.

You suggested that a few pages back, and I acknowledged at the time that it was foolish of me to be offended by the inefficiency of that approach. It still is, and I still am.

But thanks for continuing to serve as a voice of sanity. It's helpful, even when rejected.